The Homemade Pantry By Alana Chernila

Your farmers' market is about to be mobbed like the gym is on January 2.

Inevitably, as the weather gets warmer and produce reaches its peak, crowds and farm stands swell to capacity.

To handle the onslaught of delicious fruits and vegetables, we're turning to The Homemade Pantry ($17.50; click here to buy), a new book by Alana Chernila.

The book offers basic recipes for making everything from mayonnaise to veggie burgers; perhaps more importantly, it gives instructions for storing them, whether in the freezer or in a jar in the pantry.

It may seem like an homesteading pipe dream to make one's cheese, burger buns and granola bars from scratch, but Chernila assured us that there is no shame in buying store-bought goods, and that a book like hers is best used in a mix-and-match fashion.

We'll be using the recipes all summer. When tomatoes are in season, we'll be roasting and freezing them for future winter sauces. Our fruit purchases will become jams and fillings for pastry. And to sate us during our summer labors, we'll whip up a batch of these easy and filling granola bars (click here to see the recipe).

Now if only the book had a trick for cutting the line at the tomato stand.